da 'pan update

So far only one day of 'da pan. Tuesday I made it out at lunch and did my first Big Blue ascent of the riding season. I haven't been running the hill this winter either, so I did not know what to expect for road conditions. Pleasant surprise - the access road was completely clean and dry, fairing well over the winter with just a few new cracks.

We know I don't do a lot of testing. I ride without a power measuring device. My times on Big Blue are the best benchmark that I have to work with, so the first trip up of the year is always a nervous time. This calendar year my bike hours for Q1 exceed my totals for any year since the early 90s by a wide margin. My total hours (running and riding) are just a few behind last year's record. I was riding my Slim Chance, felt good, had a slight tailwind on the hill, but only 25 minutes warmup. This was lunchtime after all. At the first time check (the flat spot) I was below 1:15 so I knew this might be ok. This bike has a 39 and I was using the 19. On the pitch before the switchback I went to the 21 and stayed in it the rest of the way. Somewhere along the guardrail stretch I looked down and saw 3:30, but I was fading a bit and standing a lot. At the top, I stopped the clock at 5:15. Pretty good for the first time of the season; I haven't looked but this is probably a March record for me. My all-time PR is 4:46.

I was using the much-maligned Polar HRM, and this bike has both speed and cadence sensors. My average cadence was 68 rpm for the climb. The new version of the Polar software also spits out a VAM for each interval. Maps show the climb as 130 meters, and I usually get between 120 and 130 on the Polar altimeter. Today it showed 128 and 1410 meters distance, 8.9% average grade, 1448m/h VAM. Of course, that's only for five minutes. For me and on this bike this calcs out to a CP5 of about 4.7 something. Again, not a record but I'm please for March.

Wednesday I worked from home and enjoyed a traffic-free matinee ride around Sharon and Moose Hill, so I did not get to ride the 'pan. Shame on me. It looks like we're on for tonight though. The clouds should break and it's supposed to warm up. I am going to try to be out there from 5:30-7:15. There is an outside chance I'll be able to get out in the afternoon for a long lunch, so if anyone can make it, email me. Thanks for reading.